8
HAVE YOU MET 1.6180339887…… You may think that this is a number just like any other, but it is in fact the Golden ratio - an irrational number which is equal to (√5 + 1)/2. The Golden ratio Φ can be approximated by a process of successively dividing each term in the Fibonacci sequence by the previous term. With each successive division, the ratio becomes closer and closer to a value of 1.61803……
SCIENCE & FACTS
?
HYDROGEN FUEL - THE FACTS
page 6-7
NATURE’S XFACTOR - GOLDEN RATIO EXPLAINED
Yu She 12
SCAREDY CAT? THE SCIENCE OF PHOBIAS
“
YOUR NAME SMELLS LIKE STRAWBERRIES
page 3 page 4
WHERE DO ELEMENTS COME FROM? The life-cycles stars...
Objects with proportions matching the golden ratio are generally deemed to be aesthetically pleasing and can be observed in nature. The golden rectangle is a rectangle where the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side is the golden ratio. It can be divided into a square and a second golden rectangle, which can be in turn divided into another smaller square and another golden rectangle……By drawing circular arcs in each square, a spiral is formed. The seeds in the centre of a sunflower grow in an identical spiral pattern which allows them to fit together neatly with no gaps. Not only is the golden ratio an irrational number meaning it cannot be expressed as a fraction, it is as far as you can get from being near any fraction. This prevents the seeds from stacking up in lines which would lead to gaps in the pattern. Sea shells also follow this golden ratio based spiral pattern. Many buildings and works of art have the golden ratio in them, such as the Parthenon in Greece, though it is not known if it was intentionally designed that way.
5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SLEEP
11/07/2011
“
page
Issue 4
of
All of us have at one point learned about the elements in the periodic table – the building blocks of life – but where do these particles actually come from? To find the answer, we must look deep into space – further than the Milky Way, and into the most far flung corners of the universe. Stars are all fusion reactors. In their fiery furnaces, hydrogen is fused together to make helium, the simplest element in the periodic table. However, to make heavier elements, the temperature needs to be a lot higher – 15 million degrees Celsius (the temperature of the sun's core) is simply not hot enough! In our solar system, these temperatures can be only be reached when the sun dies. Although stars seem like unchanging things, they are constantly fighting a fierce battle against their energy pushing out, and the force of gravity pushing in, making them very volatile and unpredictable objects. Stars like our sun can only burn as long as they have a supply of hydrogen. When that supply runs out, they become red giants. As the core begins to collapse under its own gravity, it heats up, making the stars outer
(above) A high mass star is different to our own sun with its fusion process long enough to create heavier elements.
layers expand. When this happens to our sun, it will expand so much, that it will reach out to planet earth! After the core collapses, only the shell will remain. However, this core collapse causes the temperature to rise, enough to make elements like carbon and oxygen, which are essential for life on earth. Then, that too collapses, and the star will become a white dwarf, which shines with only a tiny fraction of the star's original brightness. This white dwarf will eventually become so faint, that it fails to emit any light at all, making it a black dwarf. This is the future for our sun, but our search for the other, heavier elements takes us to a different type of star; a 'high mass star'. In these gigantic stars, the fusion process does not stop where our sun's does. Because of its huge mass, the high mass star expands and contracts many times, and each time, a different element is made through nuclear reactions; nitrogen, magnesium and so on, up to iron, which is one of the heaviest elements.
Our sun will eventually become a Red Giant
So, the star becomes a solid ball, with all the elements stacked on top of each other. Then, due to gravity, the star falls in on itself and explodes, sending these newly made elements into space some of which will travel to planet Earth. Unlike our star, these high mass stars do not become white dwarves, but become neutron stars (which are extremely compact and dense) or black holes, that can sometimes form the centre of whole galaxies. So let us go back to our initial question; where do elements come from? The answer is, the depths of interstellar space, and that ultimately means, that for you and me to exist, a star must have died to provide the elements that make up our bodies. Although that could be seen in a negative way, I think it is fantastic to be part of such a magnificent cycle of death and rebirth. Emma Green 10F
{more articles inside!}
page
CONTENTS 2 EDITORIAL 3 COMPETITIONS 3 ENRICHMENT WEBSITES; READING LISTS Cover—WHERE DO ELEMENTS COME FROM?
FEATURES 3 ARE YOU A SCAREDY-CAT? 4 YOUR NAME TASTES LIKE STRAWBERRIES— synaesthesia revealed 5 ARACHNOPHOBIA 6-7 HYDROGEN FUEL 7-8 NATURE’S X FACTOR
πoneer - Issue 4 11/07/2011—page 2
The
CONTENTS
HYDROGEN FUEL How do we obtain hydrogen
pages
Synaesthesia—a neurological condition explained
p
4
We all know that Hydrogen fuel is a clean alternative to the use of fossil fuels. However, have you ever considered how Hydrogen is actually obtained? Hydrogen fuel is known to be a difficult gas to transport as it is flammable which has proven to be a big disadvantage for it so far. However, its use has more benefits than that of non-renewable fuels and possibly more than other renewable resources. One way of receiving Hydrogen would be to use displacement reactions at certain conditions to displace metals out of metal hydride compounds. This would directly produce hydrogen. Metal hydrides can store hydrogen safely and therefore solves the problem of transporting a flammable gas.
REGULARS 6 FIVE THINGS - you didn’t know about sleep
REGULAR
Five things you didn’t know about... sleep
COVER FEATURE
p6
SCIENCE & FACTS
Are you a scaredy-cat? Phobias explored
page 3
Another way Hydrogen can be obtained for fuel is by splitting a water molecule, H2O, into its constituents elements.
Uses of Hydrogen More hydrogen means more renewable fuel!
With the current oil crisis, it is becoming more and more important for the UK to switch from nonrenewable energy sources to something more environmentally friendly Photo-catalytic watersplitting is the name of the process and cost effective. which allows scientists to obtain hy- Hydrogen fuel will be useful to use in drogen from a water molecule by public transportation. At the mobreaking its bonds. Currently, Uni- ment, hydrogen fuel cells are being versities around the world are researching in the use of oxide semi- used in some public buses in main conductors that can be used in this cities like London and Birmingham. process. These catalysts work in the Cars are also being constantly impresence of Ultra-violet radiation proved to adapt to the hydrogen fuel from the sun. or the catalysts can be cell. used to activate the production of hydrogen from carbohydrate com- Other vehicles that could use hydropounds made from plants and carbon gen fuel include: rockets, bicycles, motorbikes, scooters and aeroplanes. dioxide. Titanium oxide plates are be- Hydrogen fuel is the ideal fuel, as it ing used in this reaction process. is abundant (as is water) and ecoAlso, scientists believe that the friendly. However, an effective way use of powers such as Silicon oxide of storing, transporting and obtaincould be used in the future on a ing Hydrogen needs to be developed greater scale to increase the yield of before our society can take advanhydrogen the reaction produces. tage of Hydrogen fuel. Juhi Gupta 12
OTHER INTERESTING POINTS: Britain’s first Hydrogen
EDITORIAL
Fuel station was opened at Birmingham University
Welcome to the fourth issue of ‘The πoneer’ and the final one for this 2010-2011 school year, we have progressed a lot since our very first issue and we hope to continue to pipe into our newspaper the very best content from our talented pupils and contributors for the next following year. For this issue, we have many features based on the science of the mind with boggling tales of synaesthesia, phobias and interesting facts regarding sleep. Be sure to check out all our enrichment material, compiled together by Erin Nolan (the new STEM prefect), which includes websites, future competitions and camps to be aware of and reading lists for particular professions in science if you want to get ahead. If there are any opportunities or help you can offer us, as student, staff or parent— we will gladly welcome it, so please do get in touch. Enjoy this issue and look forward to many more.
Carol Wong 12Z, editor
on 17th April 2008! University of Liverpool's Materials Science and EnWant to contact us? SCHOOL Heath Road, Bebington, Wirral CH63 3AF Tel: 0151 644 8282 Fax: 0151 643 1332 Editorial contacts Mrs Crawford Editor—Carol Wong 12Z Graphical design—Erin Nolan 12S
gineering department are currently researching into the use of nanoparticles of Silicon oxide powder as a catalyst for the Photo-catalytic water splitting process instead of the TiO2 plates.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: - {LEWIS THOMAS}
cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry “ Theabout from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.
“
NEWS
The
7
SCIENCE & FACTS
The
πoneer - Issue 4 11/07/2011—page 6
ARACHNOPHOBIA Who does not know them? Eight legs possessing animals which with their often dark colour contrast extremely with the bright colour of our bathroom walls where they are sitting on and which appear unexpected and cause fierce reactions in every third woman and every fifth man world wide throughout all cultures: The spiders. Arachnophobia or the irrational fear of spiders is the most common example of an animal based phobia. Those who suffer from arachnophobia know that their fear of spiders is not necessary and that they are aware of the ecological value of spiders, but they are unable to act on their knowledge. They have a subconscious link between spiders and the motor “flight” response. Why? Most species of spiders are harmless to humans, especially here in the UK where no poisonous spiders dwell. However, statements like “It’s only a spider, it can’t hurt you” or the more popular “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them” mean nothing to arachnophobes. Indeed those statements
make sufferers feel dismissed or as though they are being silly. There are many theories as to the reasons of why spiders, even harmless ones, are feared. Often, this fear may have been caused by an incident earlier in life that was frightening. The mind can create a phobia based on an instant of panic. For example, the girl afraid of spiders may have had one crawl on her when she was a baby. This led to the girl fearing spiders later on in her life. Also, with a disorder as common as arachnophobia, learnt behaviour is a significant contributor. Children copy those around them, and if their parents freak out at the sight of a eight legged creature, children may respond likewise. Nik Speakman says, “You learn arachnophobia – that’s the main reason for it being so common. Children have heard the mother scream, which puts them in a heightened state, then they see the spider.” T h e other theory was one brought forth by evolutionary psychologists, who favour the belief that instinctive fears became hard-wired in our biology, through genes or other in-
ARE YOU A SCAREDY CAT? Phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder. In the UK, an estimated 10 million people have phobias. They can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex and social background. Simple phobias are fears about specific objects, animals, situations or activities, these types of phobias usually start during early childhood but often disappear as you get older. Complex phobias tend to be more disabling than simple phobias because they are often associated
with a deep-rooted fear or anxiety about a particular circumstance or situation. Complex phobias usually start later in life, they can continue for many years. There are hundreds of phobias out there, with some increasingly weird and strange ones. The most common phobia is arachnophobia (fear of spiders) followed by Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). These kinds of fars are thought to be evolutional, for example being scared of poisonous spiders could
heritance during the time (The Stone Age) and place (the African jungle and Savannah) of our development into the Homo sapiens we are today. It would seem that natural selection might have favoured people that stayed away from the venomous, poisonous spiders that posed a fatal threat during those times. Arachnophobia may have been a survival technique for our ancestors, which stayed in our genes through evolution. However, other psychologists counter argue this theory, pointing out that many other animals were more likely to pose a threat to ancient humankind, such as tigers, but the phobias of those animals aren’t that common. Therefore, those psychologists feel that arachnophobia stems from the cultural beliefs about the nature of spiders. The other explanation that’s often given for arachnophobia: the sudden appearance of spiders, their strange body form and that they often appear very close to the body of humans (in the bath room, in the bed where we usually feel safe and comfortable and at other places in our houses). Also the quick and unpredictable movements of spiders we meet involuntarily can be a reason for fear and disgust. So. Spiders. They seem to fascinate yet repulse at the same time, and there are many reasons as to why. In the end, arachnophobia is a very real fear that should not be underestimated. Dharsha Ganapathy help to keep you alive and survive. The fear may become instinctual. Other fears may be learnt after a particular event or incident. So if you saw a friend get stung by bee when you were little, you could learn to be scared of bees. It’s a form of classical conditioning and was demonstrated in a famous experiment with a baby known as little Albert many years ago by B.F.Skinner. So if you have any strange phobias they could be a result of a childhood experience, or you could have an instinctual phobia that has helped mankind survive for generations! Abi Kewin 12
page
3
ENRICHMENT MATERIAL
SUMMER OF STEM WEBSITES
READING LISTS
COMPETITIONS
When you are not too busy having fun on holiday, catching some sunshine— have a look at the interesting science websites available to you. - www.mathcentre.ac.uk Website of PDF files and videos, very useful as a supplementary resource to A level (+) maths - http://research.microsoft.com/ apps/tools/tuva/index.html Microsoft Research’s Project Tuva explores core scientific concepts and theories through presenting timeless videos (make sure you have a browser with Silverlight e.g. Internet explorer) - www.askabiologist.org.uk - www.bna.org.uk British neuroscience association— definitely a website worth having a look at if you’re interested in the human mind - www.practicalchemistry.org - www.practicalbiology.org - www.practicalphysics.org - www.getaheadwithstem.org.uk (mainly aimed towards year 9) - www.planet-science.com (geared towards year 7 and 8) - www.futuremorph.org This website is designed to show you just some of the amazing and unexpected places that studying science, technology, engineering and maths can take you. - www.societyofbiology.org - www.illumin.usc.edu Illumin's mission is to illustrate the many ways engineering benefits and impacts our daily existence, an American online magazine, well worth having a look at.
Look out when you come back in September for more STEM reading lists coming to the library. For extra eager people, check out Oxford University’s website for more.
With the summer ready and waiting, maybe you can prepare yourself for a few science competitions and camps: 1. Earthwatch institute’s bluewater young environmentalist www.earthwatch.org/europe/bluewater 2. Smallpiece trust residential courses (all years) www.smallpiecetrust.org.uk 3. Villiers Park Residential Course and masterclasses www.villierspark.org.uk 4. Space school uk http://spaceschool.co.uk year 9-10, summer, astronaut training 5. AXA Ambition Awards www.ambitionaxaawards.com 11-18years old
THIS GET READING SUMMER!
ENGINEERING 1. Engineering: A Beginner's Guide Natasha McCarthy 2.The New Science of Strong Materials - or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor J.E. Gordon 3.Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People Steven Vogel 4.The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book Peter Forbes
COMPUTER SCIENCE 1. The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work Daniel Hillis (explains the basic concepts of the computer in everyday language) 2. The New Turing Omnibus A Kee Dewdney. 3.The Pleasures of Counting Tom Körner. (It puts Maths into the context of how it is used to solve real-world problems)
MATERIALS SCIENCE OR MATERIALS, ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT 1.Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour, P. Ball 2. Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century, P. Ball 3. Where Stuff Comes From, H. Molotch 4. The Material World, R. Cotterill 5. Materials for Engineering, J.W. Martin
CHEMISTRY 1. Molecules—P W Atkins 2. A passion for Science—Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards (renowned scientists offer vivid personal portraits in science) 3.Counting the Eons—Isaac Asimov 4. On being the right size, and other essays—JBS Haldane
NEWS Juhi Gupta and the Engineering Education Scheme Team have both got into the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition (NSEC) after their presentations at the North West Big Bang Fair in Liverpool’s World Museum on Tuesday 5th July and will be attending the event in Birmingham next March. If you follow the Big Bang Fair on Facebook at http:// www.facebook.com/TheBigBang4U then you can find out about some of the other projects and events from the NSEC throughout the country as well as enter their recent competition to win copies of Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe! The Atlantis shuttle launched and has successfully docked with the ISS on 8th July 2011. It was the last of NASA’s shuttle program and for more facts and the video of the launch visit http://profeng.com/editors-pick/ space-shuttles-last-launch or find NASA’s channel on Youtube. For those that missed out on the action, year 7s enjoyed their activities week doing fun science (although all STEM is fun really) with the help of many year 12s. Thanks to all who participated, hope you all found it interesting and enjoyable!
SCIENCE & FACTS
The
πoneer - Issue 4 11/07/2011—page 4
YOUR NAME TASTES LIKE STRAWBERRIES... “Derek tastes like earwax” at first may seem like a strange statement, but this is actually the title of a recent Horizon documentary explaining the interesting facts about the neurologically-based condition, synaesthesia. Have you ever had that weird sensation, when you hear a noise and involuntarily see an image as a result? Or perhaps you visually imagine the days of the week or numbers in your head? Or maybe, in much rarer cases, your taste buds might be stimulated by an image or sound? If you can’t put yourself into any of these categories, don’t worry, as these are all effects of the condition known as synaesthesia, and it is estimated that the proportion of people that have synaesthesia range from about 1 in 200 to 1 in 100 000 people. So what actually is synaesthesia? Well, the word synaesthesia is derived from the Greek words ‘syn’ and ‘aisthesis’ which, when joined together, literally means ‘joined perception’, The condition is when a person’s senses become mixed up in their head and as a result, one sense can stimulate another, without the need for a second external stimulus. In technical terms it is when one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. So, for example, a person may hear a sound and automatically see a colour and this joint perception can happen with any combination of the senses. The important thing to remember
though is that synaesthesia is involuntary so a synaesthete cannot choose when they want their senses to mix, it just happens. There are many different forms of synaesthesia (some of which are explained in the table at the bottom of the page). The most common form of the condition is graphemecolour synaesthesia. Like many forms of synaesthesia it has its advantages; tests on patients suspected to be synaesthetes show some surprising results on the effect synaesthesia can have on learning, identifying and memorising. One simple test was to sit patients in front of a screen that showed an array of black numbers as shown below:
The majority of these numbers were 5’s however, some were the number 2. The challenge was to pick out the shape that the 2’s made as quickly as possible. Because of the similarity between the 2’s and the 5’s, to a nonsynaesthete, the task was difficult and took a long time. However, for synaesthetes with graphemecolour synaesthesia, the task was extremely simple because to them,
the numbers 2 and 5 are perceived as different colours. This difference in colour allowed the synaesthetes to easily identify that the shape was a triangle, because they only had to look
at the difference in colour between the two numbers. Number form synaesthesia also puts people who have it at an advantage. They use a simple, visual way of counting and seeing the numbers they’re working with. In many cases it allows them to easily carry out many calculations much more quickly than a non-synaesthete. Above shows one of the weird and wonderful numbers lines that is perceived by a number form synaesthete. As we’ve already said, synaesthesia has a lot of up-sides to it and it seems to be almost a miracle condition that very few people have. However, unluckily for some synaesthetes, synaesthesia can also come in some more unpleasant forms. Generally, the condition goes unnoticed by many, and becomes a way of life rather than a convenience. However, as mentioned earlier, the documentary ‘Derek Tastes of Earwax’ explains how, for James Wannerton, a Lexical-Gustatory synaesthete each
Grapheme-Colour
Letters or numbers are perceived as a certain colour.
Number Form
Numbers, months of the year and/or days of the week have particular points in space and so are visually seen in the mind as having spatial dimensions.
Lexical-Gustatory
Words that are heard stimulate the taste sense.
Visual Motion-Sound
Hearing sounds as a result of visual motion and flicker.
page
5
day is a battle for him. Every word he hears corresponds to a taste. Many of these tastes are unpleasant, one of which being earwax, which he tastes when he hears the name Derek; but he explains that it’s not the taste that makes it unpleasant, but the fact that it is a strong flavour. His synaesthesia also sometimes sets a battle between real flavours and the ones triggered by the words he hears. Eating and chatting at the same time prove difficult as he is turned physically sick by the repulsive tastes as he eats his food. For a long time, synaesthetes were not taken seriously, but evidence from tests (one mentioned earlier) are beginning to unravel the facts of the bizarre yet fascinating condition that seems to affect people in so many different ways. But perhaps a more interesting aspect of the condition, is that people who have it find it difficult to grasp the fact that other people do not experience the same sensory overlap. Another synaesthete from ‘Derek Tastes of Earwax’ says ‘I imagined everybody would be exactly the same, until I spoke to school friends about it when I was about ten, and they said you’re imagining it’. This just shows how normal the condition seems to people who have it, yet how strange it seems to the people who don’t. As breakthroughs in neuroscience and psychology continue, we are able to understand better, human actions and behaviour and conditions like synaesthesia are opening new windows into our understanding of the learning process of humans and how our memory and senses work; perhaps in the near future, we will be able to use these new breakthroughs and ideas to our advantage, improving the way we learn and take on new information. Jenny Cook 12
5TYDKA...SLEEP
1.
11 days without sleep?
In 1965, Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high school student, stayed awake for
264 hours (about 11 days). After four days he
began hallucinating and thought he
was a famous black
footballer.
2.
Cool down to drop off.
To fall asleep, our body temperature needs to drop; body tempera-
ture and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why on hot summer nights it is more difficult to drift off.
3. How long do you take to fall asleep? If you take less than five minutes to fall asleep at night it indicates
sleep deprivation. The ideal
time is between 10
and 15 minutes, so you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy in the daytime.
4. Cows only dream lying down Cows can sleep both standing up and lying down but
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep the phase where dreams occur only happens when cows are lying down.
5.
12% of people dream in black and white So, 88% of people dream in colour. A higher percentage of people did dream in black and white before the invention of colour television. Lauren Dixon 12
SCIENCE & FACTS
The
πoneer - Issue 4 11/07/2011—page 4
YOUR NAME TASTES LIKE STRAWBERRIES... “Derek tastes like earwax” at first may seem like a strange statement, but this is actually the title of a recent Horizon documentary explaining the interesting facts about the neurologically-based condition, synaesthesia. Have you ever had that weird sensation, when you hear a noise and involuntarily see an image as a result? Or perhaps you visually imagine the days of the week or numbers in your head? Or maybe, in much rarer cases, your taste buds might be stimulated by an image or sound? If you can’t put yourself into any of these categories, don’t worry, as these are all effects of the condition known as synaesthesia, and it is estimated that the proportion of people that have synaesthesia range from about 1 in 200 to 1 in 100 000 people. So what actually is synaesthesia? Well, the word synaesthesia is derived from the Greek words ‘syn’ and ‘aisthesis’ which, when joined together, literally means ‘joined perception’, The condition is when a person’s senses become mixed up in their head and as a result, one sense can stimulate another, without the need for a second external stimulus. In technical terms it is when one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. So, for example, a person may hear a sound and automatically see a colour and this joint perception can happen with any combination of the senses. The important thing to remember
though is that synaesthesia is involuntary so a synaesthete cannot choose when they want their senses to mix, it just happens. There are many different forms of synaesthesia (some of which are explained in the table at the bottom of the page). The most common form of the condition is graphemecolour synaesthesia. Like many forms of synaesthesia it has its advantages; tests on patients suspected to be synaesthetes show some surprising results on the effect synaesthesia can have on learning, identifying and memorising. One simple test was to sit patients in front of a screen that showed an array of black numbers as shown below:
The majority of these numbers were 5’s however, some were the number 2. The challenge was to pick out the shape that the 2’s made as quickly as possible. Because of the similarity between the 2’s and the 5’s, to a nonsynaesthete, the task was difficult and took a long time. However, for synaesthetes with graphemecolour synaesthesia, the task was extremely simple because to them,
the numbers 2 and 5 are perceived as different colours. This difference in colour allowed the synaesthetes to easily identify that the shape was a triangle, because they only had to look
at the difference in colour between the two numbers. Number form synaesthesia also puts people who have it at an advantage. They use a simple, visual way of counting and seeing the numbers they’re working with. In many cases it allows them to easily carry out many calculations much more quickly than a non-synaesthete. Above shows one of the weird and wonderful numbers lines that is perceived by a number form synaesthete. As we’ve already said, synaesthesia has a lot of up-sides to it and it seems to be almost a miracle condition that very few people have. However, unluckily for some synaesthetes, synaesthesia can also come in some more unpleasant forms. Generally, the condition goes unnoticed by many, and becomes a way of life rather than a convenience. However, as mentioned earlier, the documentary ‘Derek Tastes of Earwax’ explains how, for James Wannerton, a Lexical-Gustatory synaesthete each
Grapheme-Colour
Letters or numbers are perceived as a certain colour.
Number Form
Numbers, months of the year and/or days of the week have particular points in space and so are visually seen in the mind as having spatial dimensions.
Lexical-Gustatory
Words that are heard stimulate the taste sense.
Visual Motion-Sound
Hearing sounds as a result of visual motion and flicker.
page
5
day is a battle for him. Every word he hears corresponds to a taste. Many of these tastes are unpleasant, one of which being earwax, which he tastes when he hears the name Derek; but he explains that it’s not the taste that makes it unpleasant, but the fact that it is a strong flavour. His synaesthesia also sometimes sets a battle between real flavours and the ones triggered by the words he hears. Eating and chatting at the same time prove difficult as he is turned physically sick by the repulsive tastes as he eats his food. For a long time, synaesthetes were not taken seriously, but evidence from tests (one mentioned earlier) are beginning to unravel the facts of the bizarre yet fascinating condition that seems to affect people in so many different ways. But perhaps a more interesting aspect of the condition, is that people who have it find it difficult to grasp the fact that other people do not experience the same sensory overlap. Another synaesthete from ‘Derek Tastes of Earwax’ says ‘I imagined everybody would be exactly the same, until I spoke to school friends about it when I was about ten, and they said you’re imagining it’. This just shows how normal the condition seems to people who have it, yet how strange it seems to the people who don’t. As breakthroughs in neuroscience and psychology continue, we are able to understand better, human actions and behaviour and conditions like synaesthesia are opening new windows into our understanding of the learning process of humans and how our memory and senses work; perhaps in the near future, we will be able to use these new breakthroughs and ideas to our advantage, improving the way we learn and take on new information. Jenny Cook 12
5TYDKA...SLEEP
1.
11 days without sleep?
In 1965, Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high school student, stayed awake for
264 hours (about 11 days). After four days he
began hallucinating and thought he
was a famous black
footballer.
2.
Cool down to drop off.
To fall asleep, our body temperature needs to drop; body tempera-
ture and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why on hot summer nights it is more difficult to drift off.
3. How long do you take to fall asleep? If you take less than five minutes to fall asleep at night it indicates
sleep deprivation. The ideal
time is between 10
and 15 minutes, so you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy in the daytime.
4. Cows only dream lying down Cows can sleep both standing up and lying down but
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep the phase where dreams occur only happens when cows are lying down.
5.
12% of people dream in black and white So, 88% of people dream in colour. A higher percentage of people did dream in black and white before the invention of colour television. Lauren Dixon 12
SCIENCE & FACTS
The
πoneer - Issue 4 11/07/2011—page 6
ARACHNOPHOBIA Who does not know them? Eight legs possessing animals which with their often dark colour contrast extremely with the bright colour of our bathroom walls where they are sitting on and which appear unexpected and cause fierce reactions in every third woman and every fifth man world wide throughout all cultures: The spiders. Arachnophobia or the irrational fear of spiders is the most common example of an animal based phobia. Those who suffer from arachnophobia know that their fear of spiders is not necessary and that they are aware of the ecological value of spiders, but they are unable to act on their knowledge. They have a subconscious link between spiders and the motor “flight” response. Why? Most species of spiders are harmless to humans, especially here in the UK where no poisonous spiders dwell. However, statements like “It’s only a spider, it can’t hurt you” or the more popular “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them” mean nothing to arachnophobes. Indeed those statements
make sufferers feel dismissed or as though they are being silly. There are many theories as to the reasons of why spiders, even harmless ones, are feared. Often, this fear may have been caused by an incident earlier in life that was frightening. The mind can create a phobia based on an instant of panic. For example, the girl afraid of spiders may have had one crawl on her when she was a baby. This led to the girl fearing spiders later on in her life. Also, with a disorder as common as arachnophobia, learnt behaviour is a significant contributor. Children copy those around them, and if their parents freak out at the sight of a eight legged creature, children may respond likewise. Nik Speakman says, “You learn arachnophobia – that’s the main reason for it being so common. Children have heard the mother scream, which puts them in a heightened state, then they see the spider.” T h e other theory was one brought forth by evolutionary psychologists, who favour the belief that instinctive fears became hard-wired in our biology, through genes or other in-
ARE YOU A SCAREDY CAT? Phobias are the most common type of anxiety disorder. In the UK, an estimated 10 million people have phobias. They can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex and social background. Simple phobias are fears about specific objects, animals, situations or activities, these types of phobias usually start during early childhood but often disappear as you get older. Complex phobias tend to be more disabling than simple phobias because they are often associated
with a deep-rooted fear or anxiety about a particular circumstance or situation. Complex phobias usually start later in life, they can continue for many years. There are hundreds of phobias out there, with some increasingly weird and strange ones. The most common phobia is arachnophobia (fear of spiders) followed by Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). These kinds of fars are thought to be evolutional, for example being scared of poisonous spiders could
heritance during the time (The Stone Age) and place (the African jungle and Savannah) of our development into the Homo sapiens we are today. It would seem that natural selection might have favoured people that stayed away from the venomous, poisonous spiders that posed a fatal threat during those times. Arachnophobia may have been a survival technique for our ancestors, which stayed in our genes through evolution. However, other psychologists counter argue this theory, pointing out that many other animals were more likely to pose a threat to ancient humankind, such as tigers, but the phobias of those animals aren’t that common. Therefore, those psychologists feel that arachnophobia stems from the cultural beliefs about the nature of spiders. The other explanation that’s often given for arachnophobia: the sudden appearance of spiders, their strange body form and that they often appear very close to the body of humans (in the bath room, in the bed where we usually feel safe and comfortable and at other places in our houses). Also the quick and unpredictable movements of spiders we meet involuntarily can be a reason for fear and disgust. So. Spiders. They seem to fascinate yet repulse at the same time, and there are many reasons as to why. In the end, arachnophobia is a very real fear that should not be underestimated. Dharsha Ganapathy help to keep you alive and survive. The fear may become instinctual. Other fears may be learnt after a particular event or incident. So if you saw a friend get stung by bee when you were little, you could learn to be scared of bees. It’s a form of classical conditioning and was demonstrated in a famous experiment with a baby known as little Albert many years ago by B.F.Skinner. So if you have any strange phobias they could be a result of a childhood experience, or you could have an instinctual phobia that has helped mankind survive for generations! Abi Kewin 12
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ENRICHMENT MATERIAL
SUMMER OF STEM WEBSITES
READING LISTS
COMPETITIONS
When you are not too busy having fun on holiday, catching some sunshine— have a look at the interesting science websites available to you. - www.mathcentre.ac.uk Website of PDF files and videos, very useful as a supplementary resource to A level (+) maths - http://research.microsoft.com/ apps/tools/tuva/index.html Microsoft Research’s Project Tuva explores core scientific concepts and theories through presenting timeless videos (make sure you have a browser with Silverlight e.g. Internet explorer) - www.askabiologist.org.uk - www.bna.org.uk British neuroscience association— definitely a website worth having a look at if you’re interested in the human mind - www.practicalchemistry.org - www.practicalbiology.org - www.practicalphysics.org - www.getaheadwithstem.org.uk (mainly aimed towards year 9) - www.planet-science.com (geared towards year 7 and 8) - www.futuremorph.org This website is designed to show you just some of the amazing and unexpected places that studying science, technology, engineering and maths can take you. - www.societyofbiology.org - www.illumin.usc.edu Illumin's mission is to illustrate the many ways engineering benefits and impacts our daily existence, an American online magazine, well worth having a look at.
Look out when you come back in September for more STEM reading lists coming to the library. For extra eager people, check out Oxford University’s website for more.
With the summer ready and waiting, maybe you can prepare yourself for a few science competitions and camps: 1. Earthwatch institute’s bluewater young environmentalist www.earthwatch.org/europe/bluewater 2. Smallpiece trust residential courses (all years) www.smallpiecetrust.org.uk 3. Villiers Park Residential Course and masterclasses www.villierspark.org.uk 4. Space school uk http://spaceschool.co.uk year 9-10, summer, astronaut training 5. AXA Ambition Awards www.ambitionaxaawards.com 11-18years old
THIS GET READING SUMMER!
ENGINEERING 1. Engineering: A Beginner's Guide Natasha McCarthy 2.The New Science of Strong Materials - or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor J.E. Gordon 3.Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People Steven Vogel 4.The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book Peter Forbes
COMPUTER SCIENCE 1. The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work Daniel Hillis (explains the basic concepts of the computer in everyday language) 2. The New Turing Omnibus A Kee Dewdney. 3.The Pleasures of Counting Tom Körner. (It puts Maths into the context of how it is used to solve real-world problems)
MATERIALS SCIENCE OR MATERIALS, ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT 1.Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour, P. Ball 2. Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century, P. Ball 3. Where Stuff Comes From, H. Molotch 4. The Material World, R. Cotterill 5. Materials for Engineering, J.W. Martin
CHEMISTRY 1. Molecules—P W Atkins 2. A passion for Science—Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards (renowned scientists offer vivid personal portraits in science) 3.Counting the Eons—Isaac Asimov 4. On being the right size, and other essays—JBS Haldane
NEWS Juhi Gupta and the Engineering Education Scheme Team have both got into the finals of the National Science and Engineering Competition (NSEC) after their presentations at the North West Big Bang Fair in Liverpool’s World Museum on Tuesday 5th July and will be attending the event in Birmingham next March. If you follow the Big Bang Fair on Facebook at http:// www.facebook.com/TheBigBang4U then you can find out about some of the other projects and events from the NSEC throughout the country as well as enter their recent competition to win copies of Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe! The Atlantis shuttle launched and has successfully docked with the ISS on 8th July 2011. It was the last of NASA’s shuttle program and for more facts and the video of the launch visit http://profeng.com/editors-pick/ space-shuttles-last-launch or find NASA’s channel on Youtube. For those that missed out on the action, year 7s enjoyed their activities week doing fun science (although all STEM is fun really) with the help of many year 12s. Thanks to all who participated, hope you all found it interesting and enjoyable!
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CONTENTS 2 EDITORIAL 3 COMPETITIONS 3 ENRICHMENT WEBSITES; READING LISTS Cover—WHERE DO ELEMENTS COME FROM?
FEATURES 3 ARE YOU A SCAREDY-CAT? 4 YOUR NAME TASTES LIKE STRAWBERRIES— synaesthesia revealed 5 ARACHNOPHOBIA 6-7 HYDROGEN FUEL 7-8 NATURE’S X FACTOR
πoneer - Issue 4 11/07/2011—page 2
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HYDROGEN FUEL How do we obtain hydrogen
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Synaesthesia—a neurological condition explained
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We all know that Hydrogen fuel is a clean alternative to the use of fossil fuels. However, have you ever considered how Hydrogen is actually obtained? Hydrogen fuel is known to be a difficult gas to transport as it is flammable which has proven to be a big disadvantage for it so far. However, its use has more benefits than that of non-renewable fuels and possibly more than other renewable resources. One way of receiving Hydrogen would be to use displacement reactions at certain conditions to displace metals out of metal hydride compounds. This would directly produce hydrogen. Metal hydrides can store hydrogen safely and therefore solves the problem of transporting a flammable gas.
REGULARS 6 FIVE THINGS - you didn’t know about sleep
REGULAR
Five things you didn’t know about... sleep
COVER FEATURE
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SCIENCE & FACTS
Are you a scaredy-cat? Phobias explored
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Another way Hydrogen can be obtained for fuel is by splitting a water molecule, H2O, into its constituents elements.
Uses of Hydrogen More hydrogen means more renewable fuel!
With the current oil crisis, it is becoming more and more important for the UK to switch from nonrenewable energy sources to something more environmentally friendly Photo-catalytic watersplitting is the name of the process and cost effective. which allows scientists to obtain hy- Hydrogen fuel will be useful to use in drogen from a water molecule by public transportation. At the mobreaking its bonds. Currently, Uni- ment, hydrogen fuel cells are being versities around the world are researching in the use of oxide semi- used in some public buses in main conductors that can be used in this cities like London and Birmingham. process. These catalysts work in the Cars are also being constantly impresence of Ultra-violet radiation proved to adapt to the hydrogen fuel from the sun. or the catalysts can be cell. used to activate the production of hydrogen from carbohydrate com- Other vehicles that could use hydropounds made from plants and carbon gen fuel include: rockets, bicycles, motorbikes, scooters and aeroplanes. dioxide. Titanium oxide plates are be- Hydrogen fuel is the ideal fuel, as it ing used in this reaction process. is abundant (as is water) and ecoAlso, scientists believe that the friendly. However, an effective way use of powers such as Silicon oxide of storing, transporting and obtaincould be used in the future on a ing Hydrogen needs to be developed greater scale to increase the yield of before our society can take advanhydrogen the reaction produces. tage of Hydrogen fuel. Juhi Gupta 12
OTHER INTERESTING POINTS: Britain’s first Hydrogen
EDITORIAL
Fuel station was opened at Birmingham University
Welcome to the fourth issue of ‘The πoneer’ and the final one for this 2010-2011 school year, we have progressed a lot since our very first issue and we hope to continue to pipe into our newspaper the very best content from our talented pupils and contributors for the next following year. For this issue, we have many features based on the science of the mind with boggling tales of synaesthesia, phobias and interesting facts regarding sleep. Be sure to check out all our enrichment material, compiled together by Erin Nolan (the new STEM prefect), which includes websites, future competitions and camps to be aware of and reading lists for particular professions in science if you want to get ahead. If there are any opportunities or help you can offer us, as student, staff or parent— we will gladly welcome it, so please do get in touch. Enjoy this issue and look forward to many more.
Carol Wong 12Z, editor
on 17th April 2008! University of Liverpool's Materials Science and EnWant to contact us? SCHOOL Heath Road, Bebington, Wirral CH63 3AF Tel: 0151 644 8282 Fax: 0151 643 1332 Editorial contacts Mrs Crawford Editor—Carol Wong 12Z Graphical design—Erin Nolan 12S
gineering department are currently researching into the use of nanoparticles of Silicon oxide powder as a catalyst for the Photo-catalytic water splitting process instead of the TiO2 plates.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: - {LEWIS THOMAS}
cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry “ Theabout from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.
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NEWS
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HAVE YOU MET 1.6180339887…… You may think that this is a number just like any other, but it is in fact the Golden ratio - an irrational number which is equal to (√5 + 1)/2. The Golden ratio Φ can be approximated by a process of successively dividing each term in the Fibonacci sequence by the previous term. With each successive division, the ratio becomes closer and closer to a value of 1.61803……
SCIENCE & FACTS
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HYDROGEN FUEL - THE FACTS
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NATURE’S XFACTOR - GOLDEN RATIO EXPLAINED
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SCAREDY CAT? THE SCIENCE OF PHOBIAS
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YOUR NAME SMELLS LIKE STRAWBERRIES
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WHERE DO ELEMENTS COME FROM? The life-cycles stars...
Objects with proportions matching the golden ratio are generally deemed to be aesthetically pleasing and can be observed in nature. The golden rectangle is a rectangle where the ratio of the longer side to the shorter side is the golden ratio. It can be divided into a square and a second golden rectangle, which can be in turn divided into another smaller square and another golden rectangle……By drawing circular arcs in each square, a spiral is formed. The seeds in the centre of a sunflower grow in an identical spiral pattern which allows them to fit together neatly with no gaps. Not only is the golden ratio an irrational number meaning it cannot be expressed as a fraction, it is as far as you can get from being near any fraction. This prevents the seeds from stacking up in lines which would lead to gaps in the pattern. Sea shells also follow this golden ratio based spiral pattern. Many buildings and works of art have the golden ratio in them, such as the Parthenon in Greece, though it is not known if it was intentionally designed that way.
5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SLEEP
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All of us have at one point learned about the elements in the periodic table – the building blocks of life – but where do these particles actually come from? To find the answer, we must look deep into space – further than the Milky Way, and into the most far flung corners of the universe. Stars are all fusion reactors. In their fiery furnaces, hydrogen is fused together to make helium, the simplest element in the periodic table. However, to make heavier elements, the temperature needs to be a lot higher – 15 million degrees Celsius (the temperature of the sun's core) is simply not hot enough! In our solar system, these temperatures can be only be reached when the sun dies. Although stars seem like unchanging things, they are constantly fighting a fierce battle against their energy pushing out, and the force of gravity pushing in, making them very volatile and unpredictable objects. Stars like our sun can only burn as long as they have a supply of hydrogen. When that supply runs out, they become red giants. As the core begins to collapse under its own gravity, it heats up, making the stars outer
(above) A high mass star is different to our own sun with its fusion process long enough to create heavier elements.
layers expand. When this happens to our sun, it will expand so much, that it will reach out to planet earth! After the core collapses, only the shell will remain. However, this core collapse causes the temperature to rise, enough to make elements like carbon and oxygen, which are essential for life on earth. Then, that too collapses, and the star will become a white dwarf, which shines with only a tiny fraction of the star's original brightness. This white dwarf will eventually become so faint, that it fails to emit any light at all, making it a black dwarf. This is the future for our sun, but our search for the other, heavier elements takes us to a different type of star; a 'high mass star'. In these gigantic stars, the fusion process does not stop where our sun's does. Because of its huge mass, the high mass star expands and contracts many times, and each time, a different element is made through nuclear reactions; nitrogen, magnesium and so on, up to iron, which is one of the heaviest elements.
Our sun will eventually become a Red Giant
So, the star becomes a solid ball, with all the elements stacked on top of each other. Then, due to gravity, the star falls in on itself and explodes, sending these newly made elements into space some of which will travel to planet Earth. Unlike our star, these high mass stars do not become white dwarves, but become neutron stars (which are extremely compact and dense) or black holes, that can sometimes form the centre of whole galaxies. So let us go back to our initial question; where do elements come from? The answer is, the depths of interstellar space, and that ultimately means, that for you and me to exist, a star must have died to provide the elements that make up our bodies. Although that could be seen in a negative way, I think it is fantastic to be part of such a magnificent cycle of death and rebirth. Emma Green 10F
{more articles inside!}